"Wrestling with Mind and Soul" (PsyWar/Totemist/Soul Manifester Grappling)

[Morphic tide]

So, here's an archive (https://web.archive.org/web/20060614055209/http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20060217a) of the most relevant Mind's Eye article, but there's not much that needs describing. It's pretty much a one-to-one Psionics'd Soulcaster, but the thing to note is that Totemist and Psychic Warrior can both do some impressive things to cut down BAB requirements to Grapple passably. The most dramatic is probably what happens when you specialize in Grappling this way, as the two have a rather intense capacity for BAB-outpacing Grapple modifiers, to the point one is often considered silly for being a Grappler without Totemist 2, unless one is grappling by proxy with Druid or Wizard. And these bonuses do, in fact, stack.

The main bonuses are +10 from 7pp Expansion to Huge, +2x(Essentia+1) from Girallon Arms, +4 for 1pp from Grip of Iron, with another +2 per 4pp spent, and +1/Essentia from the Arm bind of Kraken Mantle, with Combat Transformation allowing set-to +20 BAB. So you're Grappling as a Huge creature with full BAB and an extra +26 at the very low end.

To give a preliminary build that's hopefully a passable example piece:

Race: Azurin
Abilities (28 point buy): 17 Str (+1 @ 8, 12, 16, 20), 14 Dex, 13 Con (+1 @4), 8 Int, 12 Wis, 8 Cha



Level
Class
Feats
Class Features
Soulmelds
Essentia
Chakra Binds
Powers Learned
Power Points
Maximum Power Level


1
Psychic Warrior 1
Azure Talent, Improved Unarmed Strike, Improved Grapple
Bonus Feat
0
2
0
Expansion
0
1


2
Totemist 1
-
Wild Empathy
2
3
0
-
0
1


3
Totemist 2
Scorpion's Grasp
Totem Chakra Bind (+1 capacity)
3
4
1
-
0
1


4
Psychic Warrior 2
Linked Power
Bonus Feat
3
4
1
Grip of Iron
1
1


5
Psychic Warrior 3
-
-
3
4
1
Vigor
3
1


6
Psychic Warrior 4
Midnight Augmentation
-
3
5
1
Body Adjustment
5
2


7
Soul Manifester 1
-
Psionic Investment 1
3
5
1
Animal Affinity
7
2


8
Soul Manifester 2
-
-
5
6
1
Energy Emanation
11
2


9
Soul Manifester 3
Improved Natural Attack (Claws)
Chakra Binds (Crown, Feet, Hands)
4
6
1
Body Purification
15
3


10
Soul Manifester 4
-
-
4
7
2
Lion's Charge, Psionic
19
3


11
Soul Manifester 5
-
-
5
8
2
Claws of the Vampire
23
3


12
Soul Manifester 6
Open Lesser Chakra (Arms)
-
5
8
2
Claw of Energy
27
4


13
Soul Manifester 7
-
Psionic Investment 2
5
9
2
Dimension Door, Psionic
35
4


14
Soul Manifester 8
-
Chakra binds (arms, brow, shoulders)
6
10
3
Freedom of Movement, Psionic
43
4


15
Soul Manifester 9
Double Chakra (Arms)
-
6
11
3
Psychofeedback
51
5


16
Soul Manifester 10
-
Psionic Distillation
6
12
3
Greater Stomp
59
5


17
Psychic Warrior 5
Psicarnum Infusion
Bonus Feat
6
12
3
Open Chakra, Psionic
67
5


18
Psychic Warrior 6
Bonus Essentia
-
6
14
3
Combat Transformation
79
6


19
Psychic Warrior 7
-
-
6
14
3
Form of Doom
91
6


20
Totemist 3
-
Totem's Protection
7
15
4
-
91
6



This is a very extremely basic example piece, such that I would not be surprised in the slightest to have screwed up a prerequisite somewhere, but if I didn't end up messing up the basic MLs, this has a static +12 BAB, but then +14 from 6 Essentia in Girallon Arms, +8 from Totem Avatar bound to Feet, +4 from Improved Grapple, and +5 from innate Strength, adding up to +45 to Grapple checks entirely innately. Then 7pp Expansion, 17pp Grasp of Iron, 11pp Combat Transformation, and 11 pp Form of Doom give a peak Grapple check of +79. Before items. (though the +8 of Totem Avatar is to resist Grapples rather than start them... So unfortunately not entirely Gargantuan, just defensively)

Using a 1pp Grasp of Iron is still +71 (+63 for offensive purposes, but being safe from Grapple-beasts is important), and Form of Doom only gives +2 to the individual checks even if you are getting an extra 4 attacks to feed Scorpion's Claw. Combat Transformation is non-negotiable, however, as it's a BAB replacement (I'd link an archive of the Mind's Eye article for that if I could find it, so here's the archive of the archive (https://web.archive.org/web/20121014120955/http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/arch/psi). Found it in the official PDF, at least...) for +8 on that and a +2 from Enhancing Strength. (E: Adding a +5 Tome would actually increase Strength mod by +3, due to the odd number, resulting in +74 offensive checks when going all out)

For damage numbers, again noting the lack of equipment, the full buff stack that asks for two rounds setup gives you four 4d8 Tentacles from Form of Doom, Girallon Arms gives four 2d6+6 Claws, a Huge Totemist has a variety of options for 3d6 Bites (you do have Double Chakra), and you end up with 29 Strength for a total +9 modifier. So the Claws are attacking at +20 BAB, +6 Enhancemnet, +4 Strength, and then -5 for being a pile of secondary attacks, for a final result of +25 to their attack rolls. A primary Claw attack (and why wouldn't you?) is lacking the -5 and gets the full Strength benefit, so that one makes a +35 attack roll, and this is all backed by the above-mentioned +71 Grapple checks if anything hits. For everything that hits.

Discussing armor class without items is of limited value, given how much it centers on them. Regardless, Mental Barrier gives +4 AC on a 5pp Immediate Action, Form of Doom gives +5 Natural Armor, and Combat Transformation gives +4 Dex and +4 Natural Armor. If Form of Doom and Combat Transformation stack (they honestly shouldn't), you should have AC 26 (10+9 NA+3 Dex+4 Deflection) before gear. With 17 Dex, you can fit into +1 Mithral Full Plate for +9, and there shouldn't be any issue with affording a Ring of Protection +3, so you should trivially access AC 38 to shrug at Solars and Balors taking swings. (E: Forgot the average 10.5 on the d20, but the point still stands since there's a few different relatively affordable ways to get the AC needed to bring them to low hit chances, since they're both weapon-users, so getting to 45 AC from augmenting defensive Powers and more items would stick the Solar to 50/50 on first swing, who's the more accurate of the two)

On HP, you have 8+9d8+10d4+40 by baseline, for an average of 113.5, with a +5 tome bringing you to 24 Con (15 base, +5 inherent, +4 Combat Transformation, and with how much your buffs cover affording two of the things isn't entirely out of the question) when buffed for a +7 modifier and thus 213.5 HP in the midst of actual fights, though the last 40 is Rage-type health. You also, however, have Vigor, Body Adjustment, and Claws of the Vampire to buffer for raw HP damage. Probably better to have Hostile Empathic Transfer for healing, since it scales to 90 health on a single Standard Action for 9pp.

...So yeah, you can avoid the Tarrasque manhandling you even if you technically can't initiate a Grapple against Colossal targets this way like I was initially expecting (...should just adjust to Goliath for that, but redoing all the numbers in this post for that is pain), but everything supposedly pre-Epic that isn't will be driven to ground and blendered, and even the Colossal enemies need to worry about being blendered because you are a Huge Totemist with PsyWar buffs available. I just can't seem to locate that many giving a big damage advantage when Totemist already does your dominant Claw attack rolls, Bite of the Wolf is the same 1d8 Medium base and scales solely off PsyWar class level, and there's zero official information on Claws of the Beast at Huge. There is no normal 5d6 Natural Attack, that is not how they scale.

For a rough draft focused mainly on how this particular Theurge is covered in stackable bonuses, I'd call this a decent success at pushing Grapple numbers, given the tendency from the MinMax handbook (http://minmaxforum.com/index.php?topic=585.0) discussion was capping at the low 60s. Do correct any math I got wrong, and feel free to suggest improvements, this is the first time I've tried crunching out a build "for real".

Current state of Grapple: 17+5+6 Strength for +9, 11pp for Combat Transformation to set BAB to +20 from +12, 11pp for Form of Doom to give +2 from untyped Strength, 17pp for +12 from Grip of Iron, 7pp for +8 size and +2 Strength from Expansion, +14 from 6 Essentia Girallon Arms Bound to totem and Shaped on Arms with Focus, +5 from 5 Essentia in Kraken Mantle bound to Arms, +2 from Open Lesser Chakra (Arms), +4 from Improved Grapple. Total +78 at cost of 46pp and 11 Essentia; +69 for 19pp if lacking Form of Doom and leaving Grip of Iron unaugmented if Grappling things you should have waited for Epic to go at.

June 4th, 2021: Swapped positioning of Linked Power and Psicarnum Infusion, swapped Improved Soulmeld Capacity for Open Lesser Chakra (Arms), specified Double Chakra as Arms. Shifted Dex to 14 to keep Improved Grapple qualification under Expansion at 1st at cost of Constitution being reduced to 13, moved Con ASI back to 4th to somewhat compensate. Swapped Mental Barrier for Psionic Lion's Charge

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

The article (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20060217a) and the archive (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/arch/psi) are both still online. If you find an old link that doesn't work, change www.wizards to archive.wizards and it works fine.

I'd say you're better off using Ardent over Psychic Warrior. Between the Law mantle for Grip of Iron (or just take Hidden Talent), Substitute Powers (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070629a), and being able to use Practiced Manifester to learn higher level powers as if you didn't multiclass, it's going to get you way more benefit than the Psychic Warrior's manifesting for the same BAB. Granted it doesn't get the bonus feats, but flaws are a thing, and there's a bunch in there that you don't exactly need.

[Morphic tide]

You'd need to burn an Expanded Knowledge for Combat Transformation, in addition to losing three feats from lacking PsyWar levels, so you're down four feats or need a couple PsyWar levels anyways. You also lose just two ML until you're done with Soul Manifester, just one Power Level behind as a full Manifester, and are pretty PP efficient against anything vaguely normal from the Totemist Meldshaping handling the basic functions. Though you do get Double Chakra at 12 that way, which is a quite noteworthy progression benefit.

Another note is that part of the premise is using Combat Transformation once you finish your buff stack, meaning that BAB is irrelevant when the build comes "properly" online, and thus the full Manifester version wants to be an Egoist Psion as they possess the best buff list of full Manifesters, giving no-hoops access to Combat Transformation, Metamorphosis, Animal Affinity, and Psychofeedback, and you even get a bonus feat at 1st to have the same loaded 1st level as a Psychic Warrior.

There's also entries to consider, which is why I feel Azurin is still worth it, as you have room for Midnight Augmentation at qualification and still enter Soul Manifester, whereas a Goliath Ardent would only reach Improved Grapple and need to wait to level 9 for Scorpion's Grasp. And also have to invest a 15 in Dexterity to qualify for Improved Grapple... Though there is, of course, a Soulmeld for it, it's the Arms Chakra Bind of Totem Avatar, costing you a +8 in defensive Grapples, or an extra size boost to all of your Natural Attacks for the Shoulders, on top of denying your Arms to anything else.

[Rebel7284]

What about entering with an Spell to Power Erutide so that you can use Divine Power instead of Combat Transformation? Manifesting in combat is pretty helpful. In a high OP game, of course you can get access to any spell and power by paying someone to manifest Psychic Chirurgery on you.

[Anthrowhale]

If the race is a Half-ogre (Dragon #313) Anthropomorphic Baleen Whale (Savage Species) then at ECL 3 you have a large size and a strength of 30 with no level adjustment. Picking up 3 Monstrous Humanoid HD is a pain, although you could drain down to 1HD and then substitute for a class HD. If you do this, then items (+5 inherent, +6 enhance) and leveling (+5) alone can get you up to strength 46 (or 40 in an Antimagic Field).

Another important element might be Psychic Chirurgery which allows off-list access without using limited character resources.

[Morphic tide]

What about entering with an Spell to Power Erutide so that you can use Divine Power instead of Combat Transformation? Manifesting in combat is pretty helpful. In a high OP game, of course you can get access to any spell and power by paying someone to manifest Psychic Chirurgery on you.
Psychic Chirurgery is a 9th-level Power on the Telepath list, requiring you to find a 17th level NPC with the specific Powers in question. Even if you can find a Telepath who has for some reason acquired the most excellent of chimpout suites, it still costs 1,530 gp per manifesting and 5,000 gp per power level, making Combat Transformation and Form of Doom cost 31,530gp each while the one big value-generator for Grappling left out of the build, Metamorphosis, would cost 21,530 gp, which would be sensible... If you didn't have Psychoactive Skin of Proteus sitting there giving it to you all-day and at-will for 84,000 gp, or weren't leaning on Form of Doom giving you a pile of extra Natural Attacks to Totemist all over.


If the race is a Half-ogre (Dragon #313) Anthropomorphic Baleen Whale (Savage Species) then at ECL 3 you have a large size and a strength of 30 with no level adjustment. Picking up 3 Monstrous Humanoid HD is a pain, although you could drain down to 1HD and then substitute for a class HD. If you do this, then items (+5 inherent, +6 enhance) and leveling (+5) alone can get you up to strength 46 (or 40 in an Antimagic Field).

Another important element might be Psychic Chirurgery which allows off-list access without using limited character resources.
+9 to Grapple checks for 3 levels of non-progression on a theurge build, alongside losing the Azurin feat, and specifically being a double-template involving Dragon Magazine and the 3.0 infamously-poorly-edited Savage Species. Do note the comparison made with the MinMax community, this is already getting +8 naked over a full build spending three extra feats on Grappling. Not nearly as much damage output in a Grapple as the Totem Rager Black Blood Cultist in question, but the literal sole reason you can't go after Great Wyrms and the Tarrasque wholly under your own power is that you need a size bump to Gargantuan.

Half-Giant also gives you Large and +2 Strength, for +5 to Grapple checks on just LA +1, and refunds you two PP from the progression loss, and has Favored Class (Psychic Warrior) to cut multiclassing penalties. Again, without gear and focusing on theurging it's already rolling enough to have a 60% chance if you get someone else to cast Enlarge Person on you. You can be a Half-Giant and axe Psicarnum Infusion or Midnight Augmentation, trading either PsyWar 7 and thus 10pp plus Form of Doom and possibly your Midnight Augmentation savings, or Totemist 3 and thus 2-3 Essentia, a Soulmeld, and a Chakra Bind.

This reaches +78 on offensive Grapple checks (71 of previous buff stack, +1 enhancement item Strength over Combat Transformation, +3 from Tome on odd Str, +5 from Goliath) while getting an extra size bump on Natural Attacks. Alternatively, Psychoactive Skin of Proteus gives you every possible use of ML 7 Metamorphosis, including getting +10 Strength and base Large size from turning into a Brown Bear as a very simple option, allowing you to likely ignore Scorpion's Grasp to make way for another more general feat and get +9 (you're swapping 17 for 27). And it is worthwhile to get via Expanded Knowledge or go hunting for the 21,530 gp acquisition, because it is perhaps the single greatest Grapple bonus. But PsyWar has soft-exclusivity on three giant Grapple bonuses, so it is the class to take.

...You could actually remove the three Grapple feats for Double Chakra (Arms), with the damage orientation Shaping Girallon Arms and Dread Carapace there for them to share a Focus, and doing Grappling by Shaping the two elsewhere while Binding Kraken Mantle and Totem Avatar there. You'd have 11 Essentia (4+1 Kraken Mantle, 4+2 Girallon Arms), two Chakra Binds, and three Soulmelds involved in Grapples, but this gives +14 from Girallon Arms, +5 from Kraken Mantle, and +4 from Totem Avatar giving Improved Grapple, for +23 from Meldshaping, to go with +20 BAB under 11pp Combat Transformation, +12 from 17pp Grip of Iron, +10 from 7pp Expansion, +13 from 27+5+6 Strength, and another +4 from the base Large size of being a Brown Bear, for +82 to Grapple checks with only a single Psionic Power dedicated to the task, and room for improvement with better Metamorphosis targets.

But then this is a Grappling build, and by taking the three-feat investment you get to do it while in Form of Doom and save yourself a Chakra Bind for less in-the-moment focus on the matter to let you be a more normal Natural Attack blender on shorter notice.

[Anthrowhale]

...

If your complaining about cheesy combinations, that seems fair.

W.r.t. builds, I guess there are two different goals:
(1) The maximum grapple check using magic.
(2) The maximum grapple check not using magic.

The relevance of (2) is driven by Antimagic Field which defeats most forms of grapple-escape (Freedom of Movement, teleportation, etc...). Is defeating all the common grapple escape options worth (say) 30 points on your grapple check? Maybe yes, if you can wrestle a Balor with a fair chance of victory in an AMF? Anyways, that was my thought.

[Morphic tide]

If your complaining about cheesy combinations, that seems fair.

W.r.t. builds, I guess there are two different goals:
(1) The maximum grapple check using magic.
(2) The maximum grapple check not using magic.

The relevance of (2) is driven by Antimagic Field which defeats most forms of grapple-escape (Freedom of Movement, teleportation, etc...). Is defeating all the common grapple escape options worth (say) 30 points on your grapple check? Maybe yes, if you can wrestle a Balor with a fair chance of victory in an AMF? Anyways, that was my thought.
Spell-to-Power Erudite into Psychic Chirurgery is not simply "cheesy", it is breaking multiple basic premises of the game, to a far more egregious extent than Archivist.

Also, this is Psionics+Meldshaping. There is not a single level of Barbarian in here, there are 10 levels of a 1/2-BAB class. The totality of very basic function of this is subject to Anti-Magic Field, bar Improved Grapple, because it's built on the fact that you can replace BAB with the bonus-granting properties of the two classes in question. This is very much an exercise in the former, noting that Theurging combines tools more powerful than the BAB you sacrifice.

[Anthrowhale]

Spell-to-Power Erudite into Psychic Chirurgery is not simply "cheesy"...
It's also not my suggestion.

I think I was reacting to this in the OP:

...one is often considered silly for being a Grappler without Totemist 2, unless one is grappling by proxy with Druid or Wizard.
There are approaches to grappling (i.e. Half-Ogre Anthropomorphic Baleen Whale + AMF) which do not involve Totemist 2, Druid, or Wizard, and which are quite respectably capable.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

An easy +4 is Scorpion Claws (not to be confused with Scorpion's Grasp); exotic weapons from Sandstorm. Using them effectively as weapons requires a feat, but you just have to be able to wear them to benefit from the bonus to grapple (side note, I'm not sure if you get +4 per claw, or +4 total, but the no-stacking-from-the-same-source rule has me leaning towards the latter).

If you've got a feat to spare, Double Chakra (arms) would let you shape and bind Kraken Mantle for +1/essentia to grappling (small change at this point) and Constrict (free damage on all your grapples).

I'd normally recommend (Greater) Multigrab, but this build has high enough numbers to just eat the -20 penalty to one-limbed grappling against opponents smaller than it.

[Morphic tide]

It's also not my suggestion.

I think I was reacting to this in the OP:

There are approaches to grappling (i.e. Half-Ogre Anthropomorphic Baleen Whale + AMF) which do not involve Totemist 2, Druid, or Wizard, and which are quite respectably capable.
Ah, mixed up who I was replying to. Really not helped by the fact your "quote" was completely blank of anything I wrote to identify what you were commenting on. And they're capable against caster-types who might have countermeasures, but hopeless against


An easy +4 is Scorpion Claws (not to be confused with Scorpion's Grasp); exotic weapons from Sandstorm. Using them effectively as weapons requires a feat, but you just have to be able to wear them to benefit from the bonus to grapple (side note, I'm not sure if you get +4 per claw, or +4 total, but the no-stacking-from-the-same-source rule has me leaning towards the latter).

If you've got a feat to spare, Double Chakra (arms) would let you shape and bind Kraken Mantle for +1/essentia to grappling (small change at this point) and Constrict (free damage on all your grapples).

I'd normally recommend (Greater) Multigrab, but this build has high enough numbers to just eat the -20 penalty to one-limbed grappling against opponents smaller than it.
Scorpion Claws interrupts the Claw attacks from Totemist, though it is one of the larger bonuses out of a feat. For Grappling, Double Chakra (Arms) does work better than (Totem), since as far as I can tell there's just Girallon Arms, and putting that and Kraken Mantle on the same slot lets you boost both from one Focus, for 5 Essentia in Kraken Mantle and 7 in Girallon Arms. Open Lesser Chakra (Arms) gives another +2, probably a bonus Chakra Bind, and offers the Arms Chakra two levels sooner. Since you already have Improved Unarmed Strike, you're losing attacks by using Scorpion Claws preventing you from using your Girallon Arms, and since you have Scorpion's Grasp you actually do lose out because you have -4 to the initiating attack roll.

Given the nature of the build, trading +1 to attack and damage rolls on your Claws for not needing to invest that point of Essentia and capping at needing 22 Con is a significant QoL bit for all it bumps down the damage output, and while leveling is definitely worth it for the two levels of early Kraken Mantle. Not doing the Half-Giant because then I'd have to redo the table for the lost Azurin feat and Essentia point, and the Dexterity requirement on Improved Grapple becomes very difficult to meet while covering the rest of the needs.

...Anyone want to take a whack at calculating the total damage this could pump for with Power swaps, Soulmeld choices, and itemization? Whole reason I'm insistent on Form of Doom is because it's four 4d8 attacks, it's a rather large damage total being spat out when you're dealing with the crazy things you probably shouldn't be trying to Grapple. And the amount of "spare" Powers that aren't actually involved in the core Grapple push means it should be trivial to tweak into a solid charger for when damage is the goal. Swap an Immediate-hogging defensive Power for Psionic Lion's Charge since you have twelve attacks for the Augmentation to affect, for instance.

And please do double-check the Grapple numbers on the fresh edit.